November 12, 2016

Bersih 2.0 chief, family gets second beheading threat

In the countdown to the Bersih 5 rally, its organiser Maria Chin Abdullah received a second death threat against her person and her three children today, this time reportedly with the four losing their heads.

News portal Malaysiakini reported the Bersih 2.0 chairman saying the gruesome images were sent to her mobile phone earlier this afternoon, but she only saw them a few hours later.

The images also depicted the decapitation of prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan who was the electoral reform group’s previous chair and of Mandeep Singh, a member of its secretariat.

“I have not shown the images to my sons. It’s horrific for anyone to be so low as to attack us so personally,” Maria was quoted saying.

She tweeted in response to the death threat that the Bersih rally would continue nonetheless and that “we will not stop protesting”.

The activist reportedly filed a police report in Ipoh.

The portal reported that the first threat Maria received last month showed pictures of a man dressed in black and wearing a balaclava holding a dagger to Maria’s, Mandeep’s and Ambiga’s necks.

Red paint was thrown on the car of one of Maria’s sons last month, days after death threats were made against her and her family, purportedly by local Islamic State (IS) terrorists. Maria has three sons aged 19, 21 and 22.